Perpetual Adoration, True Peace in the World

Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

We begin by making a simple statement. The true peace about which we are speaking
is peace of heart.

There is no need to explain why we should talk about peace of heart. If there
is any single recommendation, and even mandate, that His followers received
from Christ, it was to be at peace.

Before the birth of Christ, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, was
filled with the Holy Spirit to prophesy the Benedictus, which he concluded with
the promise to us that the rising Sun will visit us, to guide our feet into
the way of peace.

When Christ was born at Bethlehem, the angels sang the first Gloria in excelsis
with the promise again of peace to men of good will.

During His public life, when Christ forgave sinners and healed the sick., He
told them to go in peace.

Before His passion, when the Savior wept over Jerusalem, He was overcome with
sorrow because its inhabitants did not heed the things that are to your peace.
And at the Last Supper, Jesus told the disciples (and through them He was telling
us what we are so prone to forget):

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me.

Peace I bequeath to you, my peace I give you, a peace the world cannot
give, this is my gift to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid
(John 14:27).

Then, on the evening of His resurrection from the dead, Christs first word
to the frightened apostles was the command, Peace be with you, which He repeated:
Peace be with you.

True to the spirit of the Master, the apostles, especially St. Paul, never
tired of telling the faithful to be at peace. And finally, in the opening verse
of the last book of the Bible, John pronounces the invocation, Grace and peace
to you from Him who is, who was, and who is to come, that is, from Jesus Christ.

So the theme goes on, and so the Church in her liturgy keeps praying to the
Lord to give us peace. And so the heart of man keeps hungering and searching
for that peace which Christ promised to those who serve Him.

Now we ask: If peace of soul is such a precious commodity, is it inevitable
for those who believe in God, or do we have to strive to achieve it?

There seems to be no need to say what everyone knows only too well. Peace is
not automatic even with the possession of faith or, for that matter, with the
possession of considerable virtue. Peace must be achieved to be acquired. It
is the fruit of grace, no doubt, but also and very much the result of our cooperation
with the grace we receive.

Kinds of Peace

Before we look more closely at the kind of peace we are mainly concerned with,
it may be useful to place it in context by seeing what different kinds of peace
there are.

There are, in general, two kinds of peace that, for want of better terms, we
call external and internal.

External peace is outside of us and has to do with harmony between people.
Thus when two or more nations cooperate with one another and are not at war,
we say they are at peace. When different classes of people having different
religions, or different languages and culture, or different races and colors
work together without conflict, we say they are at peace. And when individuals,
like husband and wife, or parents and children, or brothers and sisters, relative
and neighbors, respect one another and get along together, again we say they
are living in peace.

Internal peace is different. Here the absence of conflict and the presence
of tranquility are inside of us. Thus we are at peace with God when our hearts
do not reproach us for being in sin or at odds with His known will in our regard.
We are interiorly at peace with others when we hold no grudge against them,
no ill feeling or enmity, and when they do not disturb us. We are finally at
peace with ourselves when the two parts of our being, the higher and the lower,
are in harmony; when our desires do not exceed our needs; when our passions
are responsive to reason and our freedom is in control; when our conduct agrees
with our conscience and our conscience is totally subject to God.

Among these different kinds of peace, it is clear that some are more primary
then others and that there is, as it were, a hierarchy of importance in the
peace that we possess and correspondingly there is a scale of priorities to
cultivate if we wish to not only hear or read about peace, but be at peace as
God and His Church want us to be.

External peace is the effect of internal peace. Without the one, the other
is impossible. There cannot be agreement between people unless there is first
tranquility within people. We project what we are, and we produce only what
we personally have. If we are at peace within, we shall be at peace with others;
no more and no less. Hence the first conclusion we may draw from our reflections
so far; Be at peace inside your own heart; otherwise, you will never be truly
at peace with others or, what is less obvious, they cannot be with you.

Peaceful people are peaceable people. People who are in conflict in their own
hearts are in conflict with others, no matter how well they may try to disguise
the fact, or how negatively quiet their interpersonal relations may seem to
be. After all, peace is not merely the absence of conflict. Otherwise two pieces
of stone would be at peace, whereas they are only two lumps of inert matter
that happen to be near each other. True peace is eminently positive; it is an
active harmony between two or more people who work together in the spirit of
Christian charity.

Internal peace, then, is the cause of all external peace among nations as within
families or communities, whether secular or religious. It is also the unique
source of peace within the Catholic Church. So much so that we can say without
fear of contradiction that the main cause of unrest in the Church today is the
conflict within the hearts and minds of those who form the Church. Their internal
unrest is the seed of the conflict that is now rocking the Mystical Body of
Christ to its foundations.

The Way to Interior Peace

Having said all of this, we still have to consider that most important area.
If interior peace within us is the cause and/or condition of external peace
between us, how do we achieve internal peace of soul?

I doubt if any subject of the spiritual life has been written on more often.
Yet, the answer is not complicated, although putting it into practice may not
be easy. Let me capsulize what I am going to say in a series of principles,
which I will first state and then, in each case, briefly explain.

1. Our fallen human nature means that we have unruly passions. This
may sound like a platitude, but it is not. The root of our inner conflicts and
the battleground which we must cross to attain peace is our fallen human nature
with its disorderly passions and drives.

No one, except as faith tells us for certain Christ and His mother, is exempt
from this form of military service, that is, of struggling with our passionate
urges that are consequences of original sin. You name the urge and we have it.
Not everyone has all of them in the same degree, or to express it another way,
not all of them are equally strong. Moreover, some of them may be dormant for
years, and then suddenly spring up like a wild beast to try to destroy us.

With some people, the besetting passion is pride, they feel superior to other
people and unwilling to admit to anyone, including themselves, that they are
wrong. With some people, the dominant passion is lust; they are constantly or
frequently or easily aroused to indulge their sex impulses contrary to their
state of life. With some people, the strongest passion is envy; they instinctively
feel sad when they see or hear of someone having what they lack or succeeding
where they have only failed.

And so we could go down the litany of our maddening impulses in order to identify
our own predominant ones. But there is no need. It is enough for the present
to remind ourselves that we begin to acquire peace of soul once we realize that
this peace is the result of victory over ourselves, which means over that part
of us which is not sinful but is the result of sin and may lead to sin. With
Gods grace, we must battle against the forces of disintegration that are the
common lot of a fallen human race.

2. Our effort to master these passions is a large part of our labor of sanctification.
Too often, I am afraid, we picture the process of sanctification in romantic
colors, whereas its bedrock foundation is self-mastery.

This is all the more important to stress in our day when the world around us
seems to have lost all sense of self-control; when self-expression is the watchword
and self-denial is ignored, if not ridiculed to scorn.

I have read perhaps a hundred books and articles directed to the religious
education of children, all nominally published under Catholic auspices. In only
a small fraction, and they are not those commonly accepted by the religious
establishment, did I find more than a token awareness of the fact that the child
has a fallen human nature and that essential to its growth in Christian maturity
is the effort required to overcome these sinful impulses.

For us adults the same principle of the spiritual life is true. Certainly we
are to love God and our neighbor, but we shall do so only as effectively as
we have struggled, and won, in our contest with the selfish desires that are
deep, deep down in our inner ego.

3. Part of this effort is the use of our minds to anticipate, to plan, and
to carry out in practice what we have with His grace decided to do for God.
What am I saying? I affirm that the mastery of our passions is possible only
if we use our minds. This is perfectly described by our Lord in the Sermon on
the mount in a little-known allegory. Here is what He said: The lamp of the
body is the eye. It follows that if your eye is sound, your whole body will
be filled with light. But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be all
darkness. If, then, the light in you is darkness, what darkness that will be!
(Mt.6:23-24)

What Christ is saying is that just as the lamp of our body is the eye, without
which we could not see where to go, so the lamp of the soul is our mind, without
which our passions will take over.

How do we use our minds to obtain that self-mastery which is the precondition
of internal peace? We do so by watching our thoughts to make sure they are those
that bring us peace.

Let me take this in stages, since in practice it is so important for achieving
peace of soul.

-First of all I look back. With my minds eye I look back over the recent past,
the last hour, or last half-hour or day. I ask myself: what have I done which,
as I now reflect in my past action, brings me peace of mind in the presence
of God? I make a mental note of this action and decide it was a good action
that should be repeated. Or as I reflect, I am disturbed in Gods presence and
decide there was something wrong about what I have done, so I decide to avoid
this in the future.

-Then I look in, again with my minds eye. I scan my present state of soul.
Is it at peace in Gods presence? If it is, fine. If it is not, I know something
is wrong, because God wants me to be at peace. It cannot be that He is not giving
me the grace. It must be that I am not sufficiently cooperating with the grace
offered me. So I ask Him to let me know where I am wrong. He will tell me, provided
I am ready to listen to His words.

-Finally and most critically, I look ahead. I anticipate what I am going to
do and watch what happens to me while I quickly preview my plans. Those which
evoke peace in my soul I trust are approved by God; those which cause me disturbance
or worry, I postpone to further reflection, and if the anxiety persists, I conclude
that what produced the worry by anticipation must not be according to the will
of God. How do I know? Because if I am sincerely trying to do His will, I am
sure He would not discourage me in advance. Where peace prevails, I am confident
that is the direction God wants me to go  and I go!

Peace of Heart from the Eucharist

The most powerful means of obtaining peace of heart is from Jesus Christ in
the Blessed Sacrament. What are we saying? We are saying that in order to obtain
that self-mastery which is the precondition of internal peace, we need nothing
less than Gods miraculous grace.

Todays world is so filled with confusion that nothing less than supernatural
grace can provide us with the peace of mind without which there can be no peace
of heart. Where do we go; to whom do we turn; whom do we ask to give us that
peace of mind which is so tragically wanting in the modern world? Who alone
can give us that serenity of spirit which is another name for peace of soul?
Who, but Jesus Christ who is the Prince of Peace.

We do not normally think of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament as food for the
mind and the will but we should. To be at peace, what we first need is to know
the truth; what we next need is to do the will of God. On both counts, Jesus
in the Holy Eucharist is our principal source.

Christ could not have been plainer than when he told us to eat His Body and
drink His Blood. What we may overlook however, is that the spiritual nourishment
from the Eucharist does not end with Holy Communion. There is also a nourishment
that takes place in what we casually call spiritual communion. How cheap the
phrase sounds. But it is neither casual nor cheap. It is deeply meaningful.

As we pray before the Blessed Sacrament our souls are fed by the Person of
the Savior in the two faculties of spirit that need to be constantly fed. They
are the mind and the will. In the mind we need light; in the will we need strength.
Both needs are met in an extraordinary way through prayer before the Holy Eucharist.

We might ask, why not? Is it not the same Christ who taught the multitude,
who gave the sermon on the mount and who took time, and a lot of time, to tell
His disciples and to further share with them the secrets that until then had
been hidden from the minds of men? It is Jesus and He is here. We would not
expect His lips to be sealed. He has a message to give and we have a lot to
learn. Did He not say He was the Truth and the Way  the Truth who knows what
we should know and the Way who knows how we should serve almighty God? It is
this Truth and Way become Incarnate who is with us and near and available to
us. All we need to do is to believe sufficiently, to come to Him in the Blessed
Sacrament and ask very simply, Lord, teach me. I am dumb. And that is no exaggeration!
Your servant is listening and ready to learn.

In the will we need strength to supply for the notorious weakness that by now
we know how really stupid and weak we are. What a precious secret! But again,
is it not the same Christ who encouraged the disciples, who braced up the faltering
Peter and promised to be with us all days? That promise is to be taken literally.
He is here. Jesus is here telling us today, Peace I bequeath to you. My own
peace I give you. Thanks, Lord I sure need it!

Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. How well you know, Lord, I
am scared. Have courage; I have overcome the world. No less than then, so
now Christ is not merely encouraging us in words, which we appreciate, but strengthening
us with grace. His words, being those of God, are grace. And the words and the
grace are once more accessible to all who come to Him as He foretold, Come
to me all you who labor and are overburdened and I will give you strength.
Jesus, that is me. But we must come to Him, the Emmanuel, in the Eucharist to
tell Him what we need. If we do and as often as we do He will do the rest.